UK CONTRACT LAW

A contract is defined as an agreement between two or more persons who with an intention to create legal relations , agree to do or abstain from doing an act /s which is mutually benefiting to both parties and is legally enforceable in the Court of law . An agreement is basically an offer made by one person and the acceptance of that offer by the other Benefits include consideration for either a material substance or a service rendered and does not include mere promises . The essential elements of [banner_entry_middle]

a valid and enforceable contract include : 1 . Offer and acceptance , 2 . Intention to create legal relations , 3 . Requirement of written formalities in certain cases , 4 . Consideration , 5 . Parties must have capacity to contract , 6 . Genuineness of consent by the parties to the contract is a must , and 7 . Contract must not be contrary to public policy . Absence of one or more of these essentials will render the contract void or voidable or enforceable (Dennis Keenan 2004 pp 253

The Court of Appeal in Carlill V . Carbolic Smoke Ball Co (1893 ) has dealt with the essentials of a valid contract in detail . In this case the plaintiff bought an action in debt against the defendants who had offered , by way of news advertisement , a ?100 reward to those who caught influenza after using the smoke ball inhalant , manufactured by them , as directed for two weeks . The plaintiff on the basis of the advertisement bought the smoke ball and used it and contracted influenza within the stipulated time and sought for the payment . The defendants did not pay and as a result the plaintiff sued for the money and the Court allowing her appeal stated that the advertisement in the news was in fact an offer and the buying of the inhalant by the plaintiff was her acceptance . The consideration was the ?100 to be paid and also the consideration of the problems that the plaintiff faced as a result of usage of the smoke ball inhalant . [Geoffrey Samuel (2000 ) pp 428-430]

In the present case study , there are different situations or transactions occurring between different people and each transaction is independent of the others . In this essay we shall deal with each transaction separately in the that it occurs and finally summarise by stating the legal remedies available to each concerned individual

For the purposes of this essay we shall consider the first transaction to be between George and Allan when the former sold the moped to the latter . This transaction clearly falls under the ambit of the Contract Law wherein an offer was made by George to Allan to sell the moped for ?1200 . Allan accepted the offer and bought the moped . In this case the contract is complete and valid as all the essentials of a valid contract , namely , offer and acceptance with consideration and an intention to create legal relations is present . It is pertinent to note that for all practical purposes this transaction is complete . However… [banner_entry_footer]